


A First Person Account

by daggerpen



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 14:52:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7319590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daggerpen/pseuds/daggerpen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Oh Maker, you've got to be kidding me, haven't you? You mean you really never heard about what happened at Amaranthine?"</p><p>Anders tells a story in the Hanged Man one night. Little bit experimental - let's see how it works.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A First Person Account

Oh Maker, you've got to be kidding me, haven't you? You mean you really never heard about -

Well, no, you're right, the Wardens don't really like to share this sort of thing, but it's not like I'd expect you to rattle off the entire Architect debacle, just, you know, the basics? Amaranthine was overrun by Darkspawn? The Vigil's Keep was under siege for days? I'd expect there to be stories from the sailors if nothing else - really, not even you, Isabela?

Ha, all right, if you insist. I better not read this in a book in a few months though, Varric, I mean it.

So I'd been recruited a few weeks ago, obviously - I think, anyway, I mean, you know how - no, no, it was definitely a few weeks. The first Darkspawn attack happened just after I'd arrived, I helped the Warden-Commander fight them off, Joined not long after, but that was when we met the first one. A talking darkspawn.

No, I'm serious! They're supposed to be mindless, I know, but these ones weren't. That was at the heart of the whole thing - seriously, not even a rumor about it?

Well, no, they can't all just talk. It's - will you let me tell the story or not? Honestly. The Architect was the first, an Emissary - actually, you're right, Merrill, those are the ones that can use magic, but it's more complicated than that. Most Darkspawn only answer to the song of the Old Gods. They have this sort of… hive mind they all tap into. I don't know if I'd call it ‘talking’, it's not like the song has _words_ , usually. It sounds a bit more like the Fade, but darker - no, I am talking about lyrium. Lyrium song echoes the Fade song, sorry, I forgot for a second.

Where was I? Right, the Architect. The Architect was an - awakened Darkspawn, I suppose. He wasn't tied in to the same song as the darkspawn. I don't really know how - he said he never was, but would he remember before it happened? Regardless - okay, hang on. I need to backtrack a bit. The way the Wardens work is - Varric, seriously, I need you to swear to secrecy here. I don't exactly care about the Warden oaths and whatnot, but I'm not giving them a reason to come after me.

… could you at least _pretend_ you’re going to keep that word? Well, no, now I’m not telling _any_ of you. Long story short is, the Architect found a way to use Warden blood to make other darkspawn like him. He _claimed_ he was trying to end the Blights by cutting off the darkspawn from the call of the Old Gods, but, well, it seems things only got worse from there. See, he'd managed to _find_ one of those Old Gods, and decided to try his little ritual on it.

… yes. That's what started the Fifth Blight.

… if you need a moment to process that, I'll understand.

… _this_ part of the story, you all know. Enter Warden-Commander Tabris, exit the archdemon. Skip to several months later, and there I am at Amaranthine, surrounded by templars. ‘Just a short rest,’ they said, and oh look, suddenly, darkspawn. I managed to free myself in the attack, and when all was said and done, here I am, recruited as a Warden. Very exciting, but of course, there's the question of _where_ the darkspawn had come from in the first place. They're supposed to go back after a Blight, not keep coming. Oh and, you know, there's the little matter I raised earlier of _why in the Void are they talking?_

It doesn't help that just about, uh… all of the Wardens who'd been at the Keep were killed in the attack. So we're just slightly short-staffed, and our only real lead is the investigation of this Warden, Kristoff, who'd gone missing shortly before the attack.

So this is where I come in. In the Fade in Blackmarsh there was-

Huh? Oh, right, no, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. We tracked Kristoff to the Blackmarsh, and we found an - Maker, I'm no good at keeping this timeline straight. We found another of the talking darkspawn, ranting about someone called the Mother. We didn't know this at the time, but it turns out that not all the darkspawn the Architect had ‘awakened’ were so happy with their new lot in life. Some of them had banded together to fight him under some leader they called the ‘Mother’, and we'd been caught in the crossfire. She'd laid a trap, and it propelled us into the Fade, which is where I met them.

Well, so some years back - I mean, _some years_ ; it's hard to keep track of time in the Fade, but the physical village was long gone when we arrived - there had been a Baroness, a powerful mage who'd saved the village once. But she'd given into Pride long ago, until there was nothing left but the demon. The villagers had tried to stop her when it happened, but she'd pulled all their souls into the Fade. The villagers had been scared, confused, but we got them rallied and beat the Baroness. But then I was - honestly, Varric, do I interrupt you like this? - but then- hang on, I lost my place again.

Yes, this where Justice was trapped outside the Fade, I remember now. I- he was - hang on, I need to think this through, you keep distracting… yes, I woke up and saw him. He didn't really know what to do when we were done - I mean, there was no guarantee of going back to the Fade, so what else was I going to do?

Huh? I said what else was he going to do? Besides, the waking world was so beautiful - Maker, is this even what I started telling this story for? I'm about to tell you a story about a massive battle with darkspawn and you're picking my brain about timeline details that don't even matter? Long story short, Justice stayed with us.

Not long after we got back to the Keep, though, we heard reports of an attack - darkspawn marching on Amaranthine. What a mess, right? So the Warden-Commander took a group of us to investigate, and of course dragged me along for healing. But not long after they left we were attacked-

What? We got to Amaranthine and one of the Architect’s messengers arrived and told us they were attacking the Keep. He explained the whole situation, but the Warden-Commander refused to abandon Amaranthine - which was the right decision as far as I'm concerned, too. We were up to our necks in darkspawn and all that, but we held the walls just fine thanks to all the fortifications. Ha, you should have seen Oghren when we were fighting, actually, he was -

Why are you looking at me like that? What? Yes, I was at the Keep! I told you. The Warden-Commander left Justice behind and took-

Took me along to-

I-

I…

… I don't think I'd like to talk about Amaranthine any more.


End file.
